This invention relates to a machine for making ice cream products for home and also professional use.
More specifically, this invention relates to a machine for making Italian-style ice cream (“gelato”) and the like, especially for home use and consumption.
As is known, several machines of this kind are available on the market. These machines comprise a substantially box-shaped body housing a bowl which is equipped with a stirrer and which acts as a mixing and cooling chamber.
In gelato machines, the mixing and cooling chamber serves the function of mixing, chilling and blending a plurality of ingredients to make a creamy ice cream, a sorbet, or the like.
The ingredients can be placed directly into the mixing and cooling chamber by simply removing the chamber cover or through an opening located at the top of the box-shaped body and in fluid communication with the chamber.
When the ice cream is ready, the bowl can be taken out of the box-shaped body and the ice cream served directly into cups or cones.
To make ice cream, it is essential to chill the mixing and cooling chamber so as to keep the ingredients at a low temperature while they are mixing and solidifying.
Simpler, low-priced machines comprise a container housing the bowl in which the ingredients are mixed.
The container has a hollow space containing a coolant which accumulates cold beforehand and gives off the cold to the ingredients while they are being mixed. In effect, prior to use, the bowl must be placed in a freezer or freezer compartment for several hours, usually not less than 24 hours, to allow the coolant to accumulate cold. The container can be used to make ice cream only after this has been done, since only then is the cold build-up sufficient to chill and keep the mixture in the mixer and cooler at a low temperature.
By the time the ingredients have been worked and the ice cream is ready, the coolant has lost its cooling power and is no longer able to keep the container at a low temperature: the ice cream must therefore be eaten immediately, before it melts, or transferred to other containers and placed in the refrigerator or freezer.
Also available on the market are higher-priced, and more sophisticated machines for making ice cream in the home. These machines are equipped with self-contained cooling systems which can continuously produce the cold needed to make the ice cream. A refrigerating circuit is built into the box-shaped body to keep the mixing and cooling bowl at a constantly low temperature.
The bowl can then be removed from the machine to allow the ice cream to be served.
In this case, too, once ready, the ice-cream must be eaten within a few minutes because the refrigerating system works only when the ice cream is being made, with the stirring blades in operation, and switches off when stirring is stopped. In more advanced machines, the refrigerating system continues to work even when the blades are stopped so as to keep the ice cream at the right temperature and consistency, ready for eating. Once the bowl is removed, however, the ice cream keeps the right consistency only for a short time and must be put back into the machine promptly since the refrigerating system is built into the machine.
Thus, with machines currently available on the market, the ice cream, must be eaten immediately or transferred into suitable containers and frozen.
The mixing and cooling bowl cannot be left on the table or separate from a source of cold long enough to enjoy one helping of ice cream and, if desired, a second helping, without the risk of the ice cream melting between one serving and the next.
With obvious inconvenience, the container must therefore be placed in the refrigerator after each serving and taken out again if a second helping is desired.